Use homemade or good quality rose petal jam to flavor this light mousse.
Serves 6-8 (more…)
Author: aglaia
Octopus, Calamari, and Classical Music
Octopus, cuttlefish, and calamari replace meat during the forty days of Lent preceding Easter giving us one more excuse to enjoy our beloved cephalopods!
Schools close for two weeks for Easter in Greece, which we celebrate on May 1st this year. But when I was growing up Easter was the most frustrating ‘vacation.’ Theaters and cinemas were dark during holy week, except for the few that showed the Passion of Christ and other biblical-Hollywood films, which we ended up seeing repeatedly.
Most were low budget black and white movies, which my friends and I identified with code-names. One we called “the merci” because, although dubbed into Greek, Mary Magdalene in one scene thanked Christ in perfect French. In another of those movies, dubbed ‘the bicycle,’ an anachronistic two-wheeler was clearly visible traversing the background of the frame during the climactic crucifixion scene. (more…)
Octopus or Fish Pie
Adapted from The Foods of the Greek Islands
The filling of this delicious pie from Cephalonia is unusual. The salty taste of seafood is complemented by the fresh flavor of zucchini, tomatoes, onions and garlic. The pie needs long, slow baking so that the rice can absorb the moisture in the filling and cook. The result is unbelievable. Octopus pies, a typical Lenten dish, are also prepared on Lesbos and other islands of the Aegean, but I love this particular version because of the special fragrance the cinnamon gives it.
This is a large pie, but any leftovers keep well for about 3 days in the refrigerator or can be frozen for up to 3 months, wrapped in aluminum foil and sealed in a zipperlock bag.
I often make it into small individual pies, especially if I use our homemade phyllo. Leftover, charcoal-grilled octopus can also be used in the stuffing, and a bay leaf at the bottom of the pan makes the pies fragrant.
Makes 10 to 12 servings (more…)
Charcoal-Grilled Octopus, Marinated
This is a much anticipated dish, always part of the various, seasonal meze we serve during the welcome dinner for our Kea Artisanal guests. It is quite easy to prepare, as you can blanch the octopus and keep in the marinade for up to 4 days in the refrigerator.
Just before serving heat the broiler or fire the BBQ and grill briefly over very high heat, just to caramelize the skin. Alternatively, you can grill the octopus on a non-stick skillet or stove-top grill, lightly coated with olive oil.
Serves 6-8 as meze
Recycling my Marmalade
We still have quite a few jars of perfectly delicious marmalade and various jams from years past, I realized as I was arranging in my cupboards the new pots of Seville orange marmalade I made last week. Besides offering to friends, using it as an ingredient –instead of sugar—in cakes and breads, I thought that maybe I could use these leftover marmalades to make some kind of fruit ‘cheese,’ or a locum (Turkish delight). These intensely citrus-flavored pastes would surely make bites infinitely more interesting than the usual colored rose-water, I thought.
Looking up recipes, I was sure somebody else had probably thought of thickening a jam to create fruity bites, but I didn’t find anything on the web, so I decided to improvise, starting from the basic recipes for Turkish delights. (more…)